Pondering human behaviour through examples found in technology, product development, football and politics…while the sun shines

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Destill

Sprouting Grain

There has been a lot of chatter about the Australian Government’s dismal response to the arrival of refugees to this country. But I don’t think even then SIEVX experience can match what NATO units did to more than 60 African refugees off Libya recently. “Saving” lives in Libya obviously didn’t extend to those trying to get to Fortress Europe “illegally”. I shudder to think how many times this happens off the coast of Australia, and we never heard of their fate.

For me, all this discussion has a bigger meaning as I enter the last week of my life as “not an Australian citizen”. The hashtag #paddymatilda will be floating around twitter over the next few days. Keep in touch.

Hot Water

I’ve been having many conversations on twitter recently about my judicious use of hashtag muting. Thankfully Echofon supports this functionality, though oddly the “official” twitter clients do not. I think there is a blogpost on the impact on my conversations – I like to talk on twitter rather than just publish – but for now, I’m enjoying less polarisation and more importantly less

Distilling the Wash

In the week which we lost Lionel Rose and Seve Ballesteros, I’m thankful we still have other genius at their chosen field among us. Today I was reminded of one my absolute heros. The NPR “All Songs Considered” team did a podcast on “artists you broke up with” and finished it with “Only love can break your heart”. Not by St. Etienne, but by Neil. Or Mr. Young to you and I.

Apology: I told Kathie on twitter that After the Gold Rush was the first album I bought on CD. While I love that album, I already had it on cassette from about 1988. The first album I bought on CD was this one.

I watched with interest #twitterontrial from Ireland over the last few days. I’ll defer to people like Gavin Heaton instead of talking in detail about the “stages of twitter” usage, but I still find it interesting when groups of people “discover” this medium I’ve been using for years. I’ll be catching up on the podcast tomorrow, looking forward to it. The RTE “Doconone” team make some stunning Documentaries. I recommend you subscribe to their podcast.

Tasting

In the morning I’ll get up early to watch Liverpool Football Club play Fulham. The next time they play, they’ll no longer (jointly) hold the record for English League Championships. While this is disappointing, having not won the League for 21 years (my entire adult life).

I’m probably surprised it has taken so long. Congratulations to Manchester United, you’ve proven – just as we did in 1986, 1990 and 2005 – you don’t need to have the best players to overcome, just the will to succeed.